This invention relates to fuel rails for internal combustion engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,601 dated Feb. 18, 1986 discloses a fuel rail which is suitable for a top feed injector. The fuel rail contains wiring via which the individual injectors are operated from an electronic control unit (ECU) which is located remote from the fuel rail. The rail has an input connector into which a cable from the ECU is plugged. There are fuel outlet ports into which the top feed ends of the injectors are plugged, and immediately adjacent each fuel outlet port is an associated power supply connector. When each fuel injector is plugged into its associated outlet port, the electrical connector on the injector is simultaneously mated with the associated power supply connector.
The present invention relates to a a new and unique mounting for a bottom or a side fed injector on a fuel rail which provides significant advantages over the arrangement for mounting a top feed injector, as proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,601. In both a side fed and a bottom fed injector, fuel is supplied radially to the injector at a location that is between O-ring seals that seal the injector to the wall of the hole into which the injector has been inserted. The principal difference between a bottom feed and a side feed is the axial location of the fuel inlet along the length of the injector. One important attribute of the invention is that the complete assembly can be made more transversely compact than that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,601. This enables the fuel rail to be packaged within a smaller envelope, and hence endows the rail with the potential for fitting into more crowded and/or smaller engine compartments of automotive vehicles.
Another especially important attribute of the invention is that it is possible for the major portion of the rail assembly to be fabricated by an extrusion process, a manufacturing technique which can yield significant cost economies over a cast, or molded, rail in certain applications.
Other features, advantages, and benefits of the invention will be seen in the ensuing detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment in accordance with the best mode contemplated for carrying out principles of the invention.
Drawings accompany the disclosure and are briefly described as follows.